A Minimalist Business Life

We all have commitments. We commit to our business, our clients, our family and socially. As a result, we get over committed, pressurised, cluttered and lose time. Our business demands us to be accountants, sales people, marketing gurus and legal and employment solicitors, oh yes and providing the product or service we specialise in. The idea of a Minimalist Business life is just far to left field? Or is it?

So, what commitments do we actually have? Those imposed upon us by our businesses and/or those imposed upon us ourselves?

A minimalist business life, where you have the luxury of concentrating on one task and then move to the next task sounds fantastic. However, the phone will always ring at that critical moment, an urgent email needs addressing, and of course, we need to monitor social media and complete the task as quickly as possible, trying to avoid the dreaded ‘redoing tasks’.

What do we want more off?

More time, more revenue, more clients. At what cost to us and our business. Acquiring new clients can be time-consuming, expensive and all-encompassing. Spending more time with the family can hinder the expansion of our business or ensure we work late into the evening or early morning when everyone else is asleep.

To reduce this stress and work towards a minimalist workload, look around your working environment and start to take stock. Is your workspace cluttered? Do you have a hundred and two things to do on your to-do list? Will they get done today or even tomorrow. Do you need to do all those tasks or are they just adding pressure to you and your business? What tasks do you have in your head that have not made it to your list? Is your mind as cluttered as your desk?

Steps for a Minimalist Business Life

Decide on your end goal and what steps are you currently taking to reach that goal? Be clear about your goal. For example, an increase in revenue does not necessarily mean new clients. Could you reduce your expenses, could you raise your prices or offer an alternative product or create product packages?

Tasks to do

Here are some steps you could look at to decrease any over commitments, decrease pressure, declutter and find some additional hours in the day.

Ensure your working environment is clear of clutter

If an increase in revenue is important, you could increase your prices to your existing client base by 5% or 10%. What result would that create in your business?

List all your current commitments for work, family and social. Now remove those that will not get you to your end goal?

Revise your to-do list and stop over committing yourself.

Sometimes it is more advantageous to say NO, some changes to your business may not be for the better.

What is the most important task today that needs to be complete? Then work on the next important task. Be realistic with your time commitments. Plan your day, week, month and year. Make time for lunch and a break during the day. Your mind needs to declutter with the activities of the day.